HYPHENATION – AS A POLITICAL TOOL

HYPENATION IS AN IMPORTANT PHENOMENON FOR UNDERSTANDING ETHNICITY AND RACE IN A CANADIAN CONTEXT

“HYPENATED CANADIAN” IS AN INDIVIDUAL WHO DESCRIBES THEMSELF AND DEFINES THEIR IDENTITY AS A COMBINATION OF ETHNIC OR RACIAL BACKGROUND AND NATIONAL BACKGROUND.

WE IDENTIFY OURSELVES USING MULTIPLE MEASURES AND YARDSTICKS ====> THESE MULTIPLE IDENTITIES ARE FLUID AND PLURAL.

HYPENATED CANADIANS ARE INDIVIDUALS WHO DEFINE THEMSELVES AS CANADIANS BUT ALSO AS PART OF ANOTHER ETHNICTY OR RACE.

HYPENATED CANADIANS IS THE COMBINATION OF ETHNIC OR RACIAL “SUBCULTURE” AND NATIONAL “CULTURE IN THE FORMATION OF IDENTITY.

ETHNICITY AND RACE ARE SOURCES OF MEANING, STATUS AND ATTACHMENT {IE., INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIAL “IDENTITY” FORMATION}.

HYPHENATION IS A GLOBAL PHENOMENON {VARIOUSLY TERMED “THE ETHNIC REVOLUTION,” “THE ETHNIC EXPLOSION” OR “THE ETHNIC REVIVAL”} =====> ETHNICITY CAN BE TYPED AND/OR CHARACTERIZED AS FOLLOWS: [A] PRIMORDIALIST (ESSENTIALIST -- “YOUR OWN KIND”), [B] INSTRUMENTALIST (INTEREST AND STATUS-ORIENTED); [C] IDENTITY THESIS (ETHNICITY AS A MEANS TO AN END); [D] CONSTRUCTIVIST [CREATION OF ETHNICITY THROUGH MEANINGFUL INTERACTION IN RESPONSE TO SPECIFIC SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES – E.G. POLITCAL AND/OR INSURRECTIONIST] {SEE FLERAS PP. 95}

IN A POLITICAL CONTEXT

IN CANADA, THE CONCEPT OF HYPHENATION IS THE MECHANISM OF MULTICULTURAL POLICY THAT IMPLIES THE IDEOLOGICAL PRINCIPLE/CREATION OF NEW KINDS OF CITIZENSHIP {MULTIPLE PUBLICS} OUTSIDE OF THE “TWO SOLITUDES” MODEL, WHICH TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION AND TRANSCENDS OF RACIALIZED ELEMENTS ====è THE POLITICS OF RE-IMAGINED CITIZENSHIP

HYPENATION IS ALSO A GLOBAL REALITY OF WORLD POPULATION PATTERNS CHARACTERIZED BY POPULATION GROWTH, DENSITY AND HETEROGENEITY.

IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT, HYPENATION IS A MANIFESTATION OF “ETHNO-RACIAL EXPLOSION” AND AN EXPRESSION OF “THE IDENTITY POLITICS” OF “OPPRESSION” AND “RESISTANCE”}.

QUES: HOW DOES HYPEHATION WORK IN THE PROCESS OF NEGOTIATING AND CONTESTING CONVENTIONAL DEFINITIONS OF RACE, GENDER, AND NATION.

1. SOME “MIXED/MULTIPLE IDENTITY” INDIVIDUALS CHALLENGE THE WAYS THEY ARE “OTHERED” BY THE UNITARY NOTIONS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY.

2. SOME “MIXED/MULTIPLE IDENTITY” INDIVIDUALS EMPHASIZE THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF BEING DIVIDED ALONG LINES OF ETHNIC ORIGINS, THEREFORE, TAKE ON THE IDENTIFICATION OF CANADIAN AS AN EMPOWERING LABEL {?}.

CRITICS OF MULTICULTURALISM:

NEIL BASSONDATH – SELLING ILLUSIONS. THE CULT OF MULTICULTURALISM

REGINALD BIBBY – MASAIC MADNESS

{SOCIOLOGICAL ASIDE =====> THE MAJOR PROBLEM CRITICS OF MULTICULTUALISM IS THAT THEY INSINUATE/ALLEGORIZE UNITARY NOTIONS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY THAT ARE HISTORICALLY OBSOLETE =====> THEREFORE THEY HAVE INABILITY TO THEORIZE/CONNECT THE IDEOLOGICAL PRINCIPLE [OF MULTIPLE PUBLICS] WITH THE HISTORICAL FACT OF [GLOBAL TRANSNATIONAL DIVERSITY]